South Island Championship / Nelson Open 2013

There was no rest for the wicked after the George Trundle Masters. After a few hours of sleep I was booked to try to teach New Zealand's best and brightest something about chess. The main theme was a tabia most famous from Karpov - Browne 1972. Naturally I showed off with my games featuring similar positions, like Rogozenko - Wohl  and a few others that regular readers will be familiar with. I then made up the rest of the time with a quick overview of the English defense.

Since the audience was very strong  I was not able to bluff my way through and had to answer some probing questions.

A few hours late I played the toughest Simultaneous exhibition ever. Several participants from the challengers tournament were playing and I scored 2/3 against them! The smiling Hans Gao, pictured below took all the pawns I offered and was one of the first to fall. He walked into one of my "landmines" and never stood a chance. Nathan Goodhue took all the material I blundered and Alpheaus Ang got squeezed in a French variation he didn't know.

Of the others Caroline Yan comprehensively outplayed me in an ending while her younger sister Sarah held a draw without too much trouble.

As you see we had a full house.

"Top Seed" Nathan Goodhue.

The results.

The last one to finish was Simon Lyall who hit me with .....Rg6!! in the position below.

We finished about 11.20pm so again, not much sleep and the next morning it was off to the airport for the one hour flight to Nelson. This part was nice. No identity check, no luggage screening, just like hopping on a bus. Those that enjoy a good grope will be disappointed. And the aircraft?

A Bombardier Q300, twin prop. Very yesterday. Unfortunately there was cloud cover nearly all the way. I was only able to take pictures for about five minutes.

Enough though to be amazed by the fact that the camera can see the propeller while the eye can not. 

Then a change of seats...and then clouds all the way to Nelson.

And here we are!

This is Church hill at the end of Trafalgar street.

It has been raining most of the time since I arrived so nicer photo's will have to wait.

I was picked up at the airport by Dan Dolejs, the driving force of Nelson chess. As it turns out he was also my first round opponent. As I know from personal experience, organising and playing are not the ideal combination and Dan must have had other things on his mind. He dropped a pawn very quickly and then overlooked 22.Rc7, dropping a piece. 

The other organiser, Hilton Bennett's game went 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3Nd2 Nc6 4. e5?? Nd4. He forgot to interpolate 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.e5 . Hilton was thinking about where to put the chairs for the analysis area, what to do about the heating, lighting etc, etc... 4.e5 ooops. Anyway, he managed to salvage a draw by making a mencing looking move and offering :-)

I am still not sure what happened in this game. My young opponent totally mishandled the opening and I got a huge advantage which I managed to squander. 14....f5 would probably have been best instead of the too clever 14....Bg4. But credit where its due, he fought like a tiger and might have escaped if he hadn't been so dreadfully short on time near the end. 22.Rfd1 was not great { maybe 22.f5 to scare me}and 23.c5 was terminal. He did have great concentration and fighting spirit and will be a great player one day.


Chesschat has a tread on the tournament
 http://www.chesschat.org/showthread.php?15036-South-Island-Championship-Nelson-Open-2013&p=368962#post368962
and I will continue to report, time and internet permitting.

Toodles chums :-)
Alex.

George Trundle Masters and the winner is....

Me !!!

I must admit it was not a heroic epic struggle that secured this victory but rather an insipid quick draw. I have had too many last round disasters in the past and the round was changed from the civilised time of 1.pm to before the crack of noon so I took the "professional" {spineless}  approach. After all, Steven still had to win to catch me and he failed to do so. Paul Garbett proved to be a bony chicken today.

Second on 6 points was my countryman Steven Solomon who gave me two points start and nearly caught up, falling just half a point short. 

Third prize was shared by IM Paul "bony chicken" Garbett, FM, Luke Li and Singaporean IM Peng Kong Chan, who wa the only undefeated player. Paul and Luke share the trophy for the best NZ player.

Our Arbiter Keong Ang is worth more than a passing mention . His primary concern throughout the tournament was that things ran smoothly and that everybody was happy.Mission accomplished. His son Alphaeus played in the challengers. What a great name! I have never heard it before but if I have a son I will name him Alphaeus.

All the people involved did their best to make the tournament a success and the visitors feel welcome. My host Bruce Watson opened his home to Steven and I and the Auckland chess club members entertained us and went out of their way to make us feel welcome.

Lastly I would like to mention the contribution of Helen Milligan. A link will tell you more than my rambling

http://www.newzealandchess.co.nz/results.html

Look! Results, pictures, upcoming events, past events, games, links, etc, etc. This is a website. Now compare that to the Australian chess federation website.

http://auschess.org.au/acf/

But if you have been in the last few months, don't bother. There is still nothing there. It is better to have nothing than this disgrace. I promised a review a while ago but there is nothing to review! It is even worse than the previous disgrace. I did not think it possible!! Am I being too harsh? Please tell me if I am.

A notice to the ACF. I have been on about this for over two years now. At the Australian Championship in 2012 I even offered to do it myself {with the help of Isage internet}. Gary Wastell consulted with the council and rejected my offer. 

I will increase the frequency, range and volume of  my criticism until something is finally done. As an Australian chess player I am embarrassed by what is up on the web now. You have been warned.

_______

I would like to show you one final picture just as a historical curiosity. Just around the corner on Dominion Road there is a building which housed the Auckland chess club sometime in the 60's

Why am I sharing this with you? No particular reason, I just like the building :-)

Tomorrow morning I am giving lessons at the Auckland Chess Centre to a group of promising juniors, followed by a simultaneous exhibition in the evening. Since several of the players from the qualifiers are playing and even one from the masters has threatened to play { to get revenge } I anticipate a tough evening :-/

Good night folks, thanks for reading and come back for the reports from Nelson.

Ciao Bellas/Bellos

Alex 

George Trundle Masters Round 8

I almost over-pressed today. I got a little edge out of the opening and then showed my lousy technique again, nearly getting my queen trapped on a7. Instead of 20.Qa7 I should play something quiet like Bf3 or b3. In fact every move after that was not best. I wisely offered a draw after 27.Bh3 as I was a bit worse. Funnily enough his intended 27....f5 28.ef5 Bb8 29.Qa8 Nb6 30. f6!! {Solomon}Qc7 31.Be6 leads to a win for white :-)

I had intended to meet f5 with 28.bc5 with a messy to worse ending.

Meanwhile Steven beat Bob Smith with a Kan Sicilian so is now only half a point behind. Paul Garbett, the other pursuer lost to Athula Russell.

So, if I can avoid defeat tomorrow morning I will be at least equal first. The round has been moved up to before the crack of noon {11am} because SOMEBODY booked Steven and P.K's flights to Nelson too early. I am omitting the name of the responsible party to protect the....guilty!  

George Trundle Masters Round 7

I must admit I was a bit nervous today. After a great start I stumbled a bit, first drawing a great position against Luke Li and then getting crushed with white in 22 moves by Steven. Suddenly I only had a half point margin and collapses are not that uncommon in my career. Added to that I was black against a very creative player. I saw many of Ben's games last night while preparing and was impressed by his attacking style. 

The tension left the game early though as Ben played too creatively with 11.Bb5. Although white is technically material ahead, black is in fact just about winning. The rooks do not influence the game and blacks minor pieces just wander over to the king-side at their leisure and mate. 

Meanwhile Steven drew quickly and Paul Garbett got incredibly lucky against Bruce Watson when the latter squandered a winning position. At one point he could have just won a piece cold but this was only one of many winning opportunities. So Steven and Paul are a point behind with two to go.

Next game is against the solid Singaporean veteran IM Peng Kong Chan who is so far undefeated. Gotta keep it together for another two games.

Hasta la pasta amigoes :-)

George Trundle Masters Round 6

Well after three and a half decades Steven and I are still trading blows. He struck two today. First he beat me with black in 22 moves, reducing my lead to half a point and then to add insult to injury he emptied a jar of super hot chillies into our dinner. Here he is preparing our "feast".

To be fair, I contributed to the morning debacle by not concentrating. And I didn't do any exercise so that can't be the reason today. I did see the best line, which was 13.h3 h4 14.Ne4 but wanted more from the position. Then my original intention 17. Neg5 would have kept the game interesting but I thought better of it until finally blundering with 22.Rc4, a move I had already discounted. Credit where it's due though, Steven played a flawless game today.

Looking at the bright side, now the tournament is more interesting for the spectators :-)

George Trundle Masters Round 5

Exercise is overrated. I got up this morning and went for a long walk. It felt good to get out and about in the fresh air and Beach Haven is a nice place for it. Let me show you.

This is Island bay, on the northern shore of Auckland.

Its amazing to see how the trees hang on desperately to the cliff face as it gets eroded away.

And then resettle once they slip down to the bottom.

  Oysters growing amongst the mud and rocks, fed by the tide.

No seagull needs to go hungry here.

Well after such an exhilarating walk I felt quite chuffed and my mood improved later when my opponent, Luke, Badly misplayed the opening. It was the best position I had gotten all tournament and I played much too lazily, expecting the position to win itself. They rarely do. Luke was on the increment, having run out of time around move 30 while I had oodles left. Now instead of having a good think and putting it away I started to play quickly and weakly ruining my picket fence. I blame the exercise :-)

Anyway from the pure result point of view drawing with a strong player with black is not so bad and I did get a few undeserved presents earlier in the tournament. Still....

Tomorrow is the crunch game. I play Steven Solomon. If I can score I should be home. I will definitely  not be exercising tomorrow morning :D

George Trundle Masters Round 4

Today's game was a bit shaky and I blame facebook :-) I was engaged in a frivolous conversation about  the Borislav Ivanov case until about 3am. Just in case you have not heard about it or are not a serious chessplayer, allow me to summarise.

Borislav Ivanov is a Bulgarian amateur who has been performing remarkably well. So well in fact that many people have gotten their panties in a knot lately, not least the many highly rated grandmasters he has beaten. Now, tis true that his performances are way off the scale and the speed at which he plays his moves, which are nearly always the first choice of the best computer programs, may seem suspicious. A specialist, Kenneth Regan has written extensively on the case and has even been kind enough to point me in the direction of his evidence. Very compelling.

What makes this case interesting is that since Zadar 2012 he has been watched like a hawk. Others have been caught cheating { allegedly }, most notably Sebastian Feller at the chess Olympiad, but in all cases they were either caught using mobiles or friends or captains, like in the alleged Feller case, relaying moves by some sort of signal.
Borislav is unique because he sits motionless at the board, does not go to the toilet or anywhere else, does not look at anybody but plays his incredibly strong moves at a fast but steady tempo.

Anyway, for me the main question is HOW he cheats, if in fact he does. Apparently his performances do not taper off in rapid either as he proved in the Andonov Memorial in Kyustendi, scoring 7.5/9 against a strong GM field. My source informs me that he played at a very steady tempo, moving every 5-7 seconds.

The reason why his method is important is that if a stronger player used it and did so a bit more subtly, nobody would ever know. Do we know that Borislav's undetectable method, if in fact he is cheating, is not being used?

Anyway, I slept in, had barely enough time for a coffee and the morning essentials so my game was a bit below par. 16.Bb7 was a fine zwischenzug but I should have followed up by 17. Bc6. I simply missed the great defensive move 18....Qb5. Then 30.Be2 was a horrendous blunder allowing an instant draw with 30....Rb2. Luckily for me my opponent was already very short on time. After that my technique was as awful as ever but all that did was prolong the game.

Tournament hall

Anyway, I'll try to focus a bit more tomorrow :-)